Significant similarities there with our beginnings in the wonderful world of pain. Mine was a very brief few seconds of crunch on a busy highway which turned into a traffic snarl. Yours.... seems to be and have been pretty quick as well.

I was at what I perceived as the top of my career. I was wrong... because I was measuring success monetarily. The measure now is how am I confering ehlp upon others so they have and feel success, the come along aspect to finding new realities which are not as "manly man" as hiking/hunting in the wilderness with my rifle at the ready but are still very much confirming my personhood by being here for the family, for my wife, for my co-workers and clients, and for dear friends made here in this special place and in person where I also minister to folks in need because it is so doggoned cool to GIVE.

Thank you for sharing about vulnerability and being asked by your pastor to speak, for it is ever so valuable to realize whole people include we who are physically broken when measured against the standard of NORMS. For me, life is a blessing, an opportunity to see, feel, grasp, dispense, share, and help others nurture HOPE.

Oh, and Mark- Thank you for your adult life of service to the country and the people of this planet who have needed your skills in time of great fear, loss, tragedy, and risk. We who are here do appreciate folks like you and KZLRogue who come along having been among the service professionals who protect our home. I am grateful.

See you around,
Mark56